Subject: (urth) Regency Plot Thickens

From: m.driussi <m.driussi at genie.com>
Date: Fri, 10 Jul 1998 14:23:00 +0000

Okay, things become more complicated!

The quote raster mentions (ch. 34 in URTH) has a context: Severian
still thinks he has returned to his era (he doesn't guess he is in
Typhon's); he has a sense of failure (since the white fountain cannot
arrive to his era in time); and he is wondering about this "Monarch"
people are talking about, thinking that Inire wouldn't do such a
thing.  (In a real sense, a presentiment of what he will find when he
gets closer to home-time.)  (We will skip over all possible excuses,
like: Severian, hearing a masculine title "Monarch," envisions the
first =male= candidate of succession, Inire, rather than the first
candidate, Valeria.)

Of course I may be over-reading raster (throw me a bone!), but the
suggestion is (I believe):

     Severian's Reign from 1 S.R. to 10 S.R.

     Inire's Regency from 10 S.R. to — S.R.

     Valeria's "pseudo-autarchy" from — S.R. to 50 S.R.

     Severian returns 50 S.R.

First of all, let me point out the "Odysseus Returns to Ithaca" mode
at work in Severian's return to Urth.  He becomes angry because his
Penelope has usurped his throne and married again--his "Id Monster"
reanimates the dead assassin before he understands that he has been
gone forty years rather than the hundred days he has experienced;
Valeria is killed for her infidelities.

With that out of the way--Inire as regent: what a dumb idea!  Poor
little wry-neck Inire, ancient and twisted!  They only live a score
of years!  (That's 20, for you ultramoderns--so Inire is what, 19 or
21 already?)  Serving autarchs since Ymar, skipping through the
corridors of time!  All reinforcing the notion that the trip to Yesod
was thought to take less than a year.

We need dates here.  Is there any suggestion in the text that Inire
died--if so, when?  Can we date Valeria's rise to the throne?  Is
there some text to support Feeley's notion that Valeria's time on the
throne lasts only ten years: from 40 S.R. to 50 S.R. (I will be
surprised, since I've voiced to him disagreement on that point and he
never provided text, nor brought up this Inire angle).

Odilo's tale (ch 44, URTH) makes mention of Inire, but no word of his
demise.

Eata's tale (ch. 46, URTH) strongly suggests that Valeria was on the
throne and gold coins had her face and some man's on them when Eata
got back from the Xanthic Lands circa 10 S.R.  The feast on Iubar
Street might have been a wedding feast celebrating Valeria's
remarriage (what else could it have been--the annual "bread and
circuses" block party?).

IF Valeria's reign is from 10 S.R. to 50 S.R., then the argument
boils down to simply the use of the term "regency" (as committed by
Feeley and myself) rather than some more-accurate-but-not-yet-
specified word.

=mantis=

*More Wolfe info & archive of this list at http://www.urth.net/urth/

---

From: adam louis stephanides <astephan at students.uiuc.edu>
Date: Sat, 11 Jul 1998 11:04:46 +0000

> Valeria is killed for her infidelities.

But when the assassin is reanimated, Severian has no idea that Valeria is
Autarch or has remarried; he doesn't even know if she's still alive.  Or
is the idea that Severian's unconscious somehow knows the future?  If so,
this would be ironic, since his conscious guesses as to the future are
generally wrong.

Incidentally, as long as we're on this chapter (41) who is the mysterious
lovely woman Severian sees in the Secret House?  (I just came across this
passage by chance, so maybe the answer is made obvious elsewhere in the
book, or maybe it's been discussed on this list; if so, I apologize.)

--Adam